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Saturday July 21, 2018

July 20, 2018 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday July 21, 2018

These are dark days for recycling and composting in Hamilton

If you’re among the thousands of citizens who try to do the right things about recycling and waste diversion, these are not good times.

It’s a discouraging double-whammy.

May 2, 2018

Part one happened early this year. After years of imploring citizens to put items like coffee cup lids, Styrofoam and black plastic in the recycling box, city officials had to reverse that. It was, in the words of city recycling manager Emil Prpic, a “market-driven” eco-dilemma. The problem is, virtually no one wanted to buy those recycled goods. In January, China, which was the giant in the buying market, cracked down on imported plastics. It applied new more stringent purity standards that ruled out most of our plastics.

There must be more buyers than China? Yes. But China has been voracious, consuming more than half the world’s recyclables. There isn’t adequate infrastructure yet to make up for that lost capacity.

So in Hamilton, and many other municipalities, recyclables have to be stored or handled by a third party. Tragically, some of this stuff is ending up in our landfills.

That was bad enough, but then more recently the second whammy hit. The city’s composting plant on Burlington Street East was stinking. It has been odiferous for a long time, but recently the problem has been getting worse. Last month, responding to growing citizen complaints, the plant was closed until a solution can be found.

April 24, 2018

So that food and organic waste you have been separating? It’s going into our only landfill site in Glanbrook. Something like 660 tonnes — daily.

So no food waste recycling. Limited plastics recycling, with the most common types — so-called low grade plastics — being not recyclable because no one wants them. If they’re mixed in with other, legitimate recycling, they contaminate them and have to be sorted by hand otherwise the entire load is useless.

Just to add insult to injury, we’re living under a new government that doesn’t appear to believe the environment matters at all, and next door to a superpower that is losing its mind and racing backwards on environmental protection. (Source: Hamilton Spectator) 

 

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Posted in: Canada, Hamilton, Ontario Tagged: collection, garbage, nanny state, Ontario, organic, recycling, social engineering, waste

Tuesday February 26, 2008

February 26, 2008 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday February 26, 2008

Sludge in the City

East Hamilton could end up with two sludge incineration plants if the city proceeds with plans for a $60-million burner at the Woodward Avenue sewage treatment plant, while the $120-million Liberty Energy Centre is built a short distance away on Strathearne Avenue.

The city plant, still at an early planning stage, would just burn sludge, while the Liberty centre would also use wood waste as fuel, enabling it to produce electricity for sale to the Ontario power grid.

Some councillors argued last August that it might make more sense for the city to use the Liberty Energy power plant and asked staff to investigate the cost.

* Hamilton now spreads 53,000 tonnes of sludge a year — about 1,250 truckloads — on farm fields in surrounding municipalities. It predicts it will cost $158 million to continue over the next 30 years, if sufficient land remains available. It puts the cost of incineration at $134 million and says that would also reduce trucking and the resulting air pollution.

* The Liberty Energy Centre is designed to handle about 400,000 tonnes of sludge and 150,000 tonnes of wood waste a year. It would be built in two stages, each capable of producing five megawatts of electricity. Together, they would burn 1,200 tonnes a day of sludge and 480 tonnes of chipped trees, lumber and other biomass, producing enough power for 8,000 homes. For further information, go to libertyenergy.ca.  (Source: Hamilton Spectator)

 

Posted in: Hamilton Tagged: architecture, bio, brownfield, energy, Hamilton, incineration, liberty, management, organic, P.O.O.H., POOH, ScienceExpo, sewage, sludge, treatment, waste

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This website contains satirical commentaries of current events going back several decades. Some readers may not share this sense of humour nor the opinions expressed by the artist. To understand editorial cartoons it is important to understand their effectiveness as a counterweight to power. It is presumed readers approach satire with a broad minded foundation and healthy knowledge of objective facts of the subjects depicted.

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